Persian speakers: help translate words and tone please!
March 8, 2013 11:48 AM   Subscribe

I tried putting this into google translate, but the output didn't make any sense to me. Could anyone please help me translate the conversation and the tone, please? Thank you very much. Followup questions will most likely come after.

Person A: onjam ke bar nemidari khanom. mikhastam bebinam behtar shodi?
Person B: Ghesmate khanom goftanet ro mipasandam...
Person A: Merci khanom jon. By the way, Rozeton ham mobarak.
posted by mild deer to Writing & Language (8 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I only know a bit of Farsi, but this much I know:

Khanom = mrs or ma'am; jon = "dear" or a figure of speech indicating affection/nicety. Merci = thank you. Mobarak = congrats.

So the tone is kind/affectionate, the last line is thanking person B (a woman) for something, and congratulating her. I can figure out the rest in a couple minutes probably.
posted by celtalitha at 11:59 AM on March 8, 2013


Response by poster: celtalitha,

The only words I recognize are jon and merci, but thank you for translating some of the words and pointing out the conversation's overall tone. I would definitely be interested in seeing what the rest of the conversation means.

I should add that part of the mis-translation in google translate may have something to do with the above Persian words being phrases rather than words..but that's just my guess.
posted by mild deer at 12:05 PM on March 8, 2013


If you comment what Google translate gave you I can probably decipher the grammar. The verb endings will screw up the traslations, but I can't get it to work at all... I studied persian grammar a long time ago (when I was dating and Irani guy) but don't remember a lot of vocabulary.

"nemidari" for example is a negative-imperfect verb indicator, not an actual word as such, so it wouldn't translate.
posted by celtalitha at 12:11 PM on March 8, 2013


Response by poster: For "onjam ke bar," google translate gave me: "Performed on."
posted by mild deer at 12:22 PM on March 8, 2013


Well, nemidari = negative imperfect to performed, ma'am, then something about, should I look prettier? i.e. Do I look good? Did I do well?

I imagine the second sentence is affirmative. "Goft" is to tell.

Then thanks, and also contrats on your day also (what that means in context, I don't know).
posted by celtalitha at 12:25 PM on March 8, 2013


Sorry! Hopefully an actual Persian speaker can step in and respond more clearly... I'm just trying to figure it out for fun...
posted by celtalitha at 12:26 PM on March 8, 2013


I'll take a stab at this, but it's kinda difficult considering how the english spelling is meant to be pronounced and if the words are blended together.

Person A: onjam ke bar nemidari khanom. mikhastam bebinam behtar shodi?
____ you won't pick up ma'am? I wanted to see if you're better.
(I'm not sure about onjam... unless it was "jon am", in which case it be like "dear")
barnemidari (I'd put them together in one word) = you don't pick up
khanom = woman/ma'am
mikhastam = I wanted to
bebinam = I see
behtar = better
shodi = are

Person B: Ghesmate khanom goftanet ro mipasandam...
This one's a lot tougher. If it's really khanom, then I don't know, maybe "Split up woman said ___" (not helpful I know). If it was konam/khonam with the o and a swapped, I think it could be "I can divide/split up ____"
ghesmate = to divide or split up something among a few people
goftanet - not sure, but if its just goftan it'd mean "they said"

Person A: Merci khanom jon. By the way, Rozeton ham mobarak.
Thank you ma'am. By the way, happy Rozeton?
Rozeton = A specific event/name perhaps. Nevermind, I see it now. It's "your day". So the whole thing would be something like "Thank you ma'am. By the way, have a good day"
posted by villafoyager at 12:49 PM on March 8, 2013


Best answer: I have a tough time with Romanized Persian (it's hell to figure out if you have a non-Iranian accent!), but I'll give this a crack:

Person A: (Not sure what this sentence is supposed to be.) I wanted to see if you're feeling better?
Person B: It's fortunate, ma'am. (Or maybe It's fated, I'm not super familiar with the usage here.) I admire your saying so. (The sense of this would be "thank you for your kind words.")
Person A: Thank you dear madam. By the way, have a nice day too.

That first sentence is tough without seeing it written in Persian or hearing it. "Onjam" (which I would instead romanize as anjam) (انجام ) means conclusion, end, accomplishment. "Bar nemidari" is the negative present indicative conjugation of bar dashtan for the second person or you (بر داشتن), and means to take up, to grab, to take off, to choose, to remove, to pick up, or to undertake a change, among many other meanings (it's a popular verb!). So bar nemidari might be "you won't pick it up." You can see more definitions and conjugations of it here. Without knowing more context, it's difficult to say which sense of the word is correct. The full sentence might be something like "you won't take up/choose/whatever the end ma'am."

Ghesmat does also mean portion or division, but given the context, I think it means something closer to fate or fortune here. You can hear people use it in sayings that have the sense of "whatever will be will be."

In general, it's difficult to look up translations for Persian verbs which have been conjugated, because what looks like one word is essentially a whole sentence, and dictionaries won't necessarily tell you that something like "nedaram" means "I don't have it." You need to know the unconjugated verb to know what the verb means.

The general sense of this conversation is a polite exchange of well wishes with someone who wasn't feeling well. Also, if you're sure you didn't hear a d at the end of verb-phrases like shodi and nemidari, that suggests the two speakers are familiar enough to use the informal second person (i.e. the difference between using thou and you, or tu and vouz in French). Some Persian accents are a little lazy about making this distinction though, so it can be hard to tell.

Full disclosure: I speak Dari (Afghan dialect of Persian), and this appears to be a conversation between two people who speak with an Iranian accent/dialect.
posted by yasaman at 1:36 PM on March 8, 2013 [1 favorite]


« Older More music like Sleigh Bells' "Crown on the...   |   Help me identify this Merrell bag. Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.